Wheeled winner of round 2

  Poem of the week, round 2. Förra året tyckte jag att Times Literary Supplements urval hade lite väl hög akademisk svansföring. I år har de faktiskt chockerat mig på ett positivt sätt. 

  Nedanstående dikt av den nyligen blogg-omskrivne X.J. Kennedy publicerades av TLS i januari. I min genomgång fick dikten full pott.

  Ställningen efter två omgångar:

Times Literary Supplement, 4 poäng
The Guardian, 3 poäng
Griffin Poetry Prize, 3 poäng
Vallum Magazine, 3 poäng
Inpress Books, 2 poäng
Vinyl Poetry & Prose, 0 poäng

***

At a low mass for two hot-rodders, by X.J. Kennedy
(From Cross ties : selected poems. Athens : University of Georgia Press, 1985.)

Sheeted in steel, embedded face to face,
They idle in a feelingless embrace,
The only ones at last who had the nerve
To crash head-on, not chicken out and swerve.
Inseparable, in one closed car they roll
Down the stoned aisle and on out to a hole,
Wheeled by the losers: six of fledgling beard,
Black-jacketed and glum, who also steered
Toward absolute success with total pride,
But, inches from it, felt, and turned aside.

***

  Den kanadensiska poeten Jane Munro har skrivit en diktsvit om sitt liv med en alzheimer-drabbad make. De omtalade dikterna finns med i diktsamlingen Blue Sonoma (2014).
  En av texterna utsågs till veckans dikt hos Griffin Poetry Prize i slutet av januari.

Old man vacanas (extract), by Jane Munro
(From Blue Sonoma. London, Ontario : Brick Books, 2014.)

5

The old man who picks up the phone
does not get your message.

Call again.
Please call again.

The cats leave squirrel guts
on the Tibetan rug.
Augury I cannot read.

You’ve got to talk with me.
I scrape glistening coils
into a dust pan,
spit on drops of blood and spray ammonia.

The blood spreads into the white wool.

I am so sick of purring beasts.

Don’t tempt me, old man.
Today I have four arms
and weapons in each hand.